The Era of Running
by The Other Side of Darkness
Summary: AU Major. After a fight with Vlad where both of their secrets are revealed to Jack and Maddie, things don't go quite so well as at the end of Phantom Planet. Danny is imprisoned and his only hope is a plan three years in the making,
1. Chapter 1

This is a story being written for one scene. a scene that appears in this chapter. The rest of this story is simply a build on that scene.

I do not own Danny Phantom.

Chapter One: The Caged

Maddie Fenton was one of the top most experts on paranormal investigation and ectoplasmic containment fields. She was a ninth degree blackbelt. She had helped save the city of Amity Park more times than the mayor was really willing to admit.

And Maddeline Anne Fenton was a bad mother.

Her daughter, Jazz Fenton, was a top student, on her way to becoming one of the best psycholigists in the state, and had a rich and fulfilled childhood. She hated her parents.

Because she loved her brother.

Not in any way that could be considered incestuous, though with her cold outward attitude to any male outside of her family it was joked about often enough.

She loved her brother in the way every big sister should. And she admired him. Admired his strength. Both physical and the strength of his soul.

For two years he fought against all outside forces intending to do harm. He layed to rest the schemes of people with plans so ... vile Jazz still shuddered at the thought of them. He withstood endless amounts of temptation, bowing only once or twice, and came out the other side better than when he started.

Until Jack and Maddie found out his little secret.

"Jazz," her mother began, "I know you think he's your brother," It was an argument that had started three years ago, a mere two weeks after Danny tunred sixteen, "But it's a monster," Her tone became poisonous, "A creature that stole the face and form of our son to mock our sense of familial love and closeness. You have to see that!"

Jazz said nothing as she glared across the table at her mother. She had set her face in a permanent scowl ever since it became apparent that her parents themselves would never see the face of their son in the towns hero ever again.

"Just look at the testing," Jack insisted. He had become far more serious over the last three years. Too serious.

"No human being grows like that, Jazz," Maddie said with unending conviction. She knew, _knew_, that monster wasn't her son.

Jazz finished the cup of coffee she was drinking without taking her teal glare off of her mother before standing from the table, grabbing a book bag full of the books she needed for her current term in Amity University. She didn't grace her parents with a goodbye. She hadn't in three years done that once.

Jack placed a large hand on his wife's shoulder and gently assured that it would all be fine, "She'll understand, Maddie. She's a smart girl. Sher just needs to get used to the fact that it wasn't her brother she had grown closer to."

"But it's been three years, Jack. What if she's still under his thrall? What if-"

"She's not, sweety. We've done every kind of test we can and more. We know she's just being stubborn."

Maddie sighed deeply before a fiece look crept into her eyes, "Let's get back to work."

The two eldest Fentons went to their basement laboratory to further their studies.

Currently heading to the airport, _not_ to Amity University, Jazz was speaking rapidly on the phone with one of the two people she hoped to see more than all but one other person on this planet.

"Yes, he arrives tomrrow. If I'm right, just two days later the International Ectomorphic Study Expo starts. My... parents will be there. We wont have to worry about them for two to three days. We can do it then," She spoke in a monotone to the receiver, but there seemed to be a warmth in her voice. A warmth that no longer existed for all but one of her family.

"I'll see you in thirty minutes, Sam," she then said a quick goodbye and hung up the cell phone. Her mind was whirring with images of past present and what she hoped to be future.

She arrived at the airport fifteen minutes later and as she sat in the parking lot, parked in the closest space she could get to the doors of the terminal, and every subsequent minute from there ticked by like an unbearable eternity. She almost screamed when someone knocked on her window.

She briefly glared out her window. Her scowl immediately became a bright smile. She threw open the door and proceeded to crush the person in a hug.

Her victim, a young woman with pale white skin, lustrous black hair kept in a ponytail, and amethyst eyes, laughed good naturedly and hugged her back. After a short while the two women parted and looked eachother over.

Jazz, for her part, hadn't really changed over the years except to grow a little taller and adding a semipermanent scowl to her visage.

Sam Manson however was almost a different person, physically. She now stood at a proud five feet, eight inches tall, her body was covered with the lithe muscle of a professional gymnast, and her breasts, a modest A cup the last time jazz has seen her, had filled out some more into a mid B.

Her clothing had changed too, though not for lack of want. Instead of a gothic getup that she would have chosen back then, she wore a pair of blue jean pants, some inexpensive running shoes, and a purple shirt that matched her eyes and lipstick.

After a small session of catchup between the two they were off. sam stuff her dufflebag full of necessities in the back seat and climbed into the passenger side of Jazz's car. They rode into nothern Amity park, A forty minute drive from the Fenton Works, where Sam had called ahead to rent a couple of rooms for herself and Tucker, when he showed up the next day.

Jazz wished she could invite her to stay at her place, but she still lived in the Fenton Works with her parents. She used the excuse that if she didn't have to pay rent for an appartment then she'd have more time for her studies in her college classes. It was only a half lie. She did use the time to study, but instead of psychology, like she lead them to believe she studied Jack and Maddie. She learned the ins and outs of their day to day life like she never had before in the first eighteen years of her life. They would hardly ever surprise her with something they did anymore.

After another parting hug and a whispered, "We've waited three years for this," Jazz left to continue her day at the university. Luckily she had a free period that morning that she had not told her parent about so that no one would miss her as she went to pick up Sam.

Sam sat her duffle bag on the bed and pulled out another pair of blue jeans and a green shirt, with the logo for the gymnastic team she had played for in her last two years in highschool, and headed for the shower. A good forty five minutes later, Sam stepped out of a nice hot shower wearing the hotel provided robe, and looked out over the panoramic view of Amity Park.

She'd never hated a city more than she did this one. If only for two of it's current residents. She never thought she could hate anyone else's parents more than she did hers. The Fentons, as they had a habit of doing, proved her wrong.

It was Jack and Maddie who convinced the Mansons that taking Sam away from Amity would be good for her. It was them who convinced the Foleys that Tucker should stay away from Sam too, to keep from perpetuating eachother's delusions of Danny still being alive.

It was Jack and Maddie Fenton who locked up their son for saving their lives.

Three years ago Vlad Masters had picked a fight with Danny by threatening his family. Danny fought his hardest and with the help of Sam, Tucker, and Jazz was able to beat Vlad down. But Vlad has never been known to play fair.

Just as the four teens though they had won Vlad launched his last strike. A massive blast of magenta energy shot towards the elder Fentons. Danny didn't have time to think, only time to act. He placed himself in the line of fire and summoned an ecto shield with the best of them.

Vlad poured every last bit of himself into that blast, and to keep it from killing his parents, Danny had to do the same for his shield. In the end, after two minutes and thirty seven seconds of struggle it ended.

With a roar in his throat and determination in his eyes, Danny pushed the very last of his ecto stores into the shield. It strengthened to the point that, for half a second, it refelcted the blast back at Vlad. That half second was just enough for it to take Vlad out in his weakened condition. The elder Halfa passed out after a hard landing and reverted to his human form shocking those who saw it. Danny, in a similarly weakened state fell out of the air and landed at his parent's feet, also in human form.

Thing never seemed to stop going downhill from there.

At least, not until today. Today was the beginning a new era in there lives.

+--- ---+

Four days later Jazz, Tucker, and Sam stood infront of a seemingly bare wall in the Fentons' lab. They had decided to wait an extra day to make sure that Jack and Maddie were well and truly gone. It would not due for the two of them to come back to the house to grab something they forgot and see the three of them attempting this.

Jazz decided to go over the detail one last time, "Okay, once the wall opens we have exactly fifteen minutes before it closes again. Ten feet in the real fun starts, that's where the laser tracking starts. Jack," Except in the company of her parents Jazz never refered to them by anything but their names, "Programmed those so it will be impossibly to know exactly where each laser will be at any given moment. The lasers, when they find you Sam, will start the cameras. Tthe cameras are hooked to a a computer that scans for ectoplasmic traces and start a biometric facial scan. The whole process will take thirty eight seconds. When it sees that you aren't Maddie or Jack it will jump into alert mode. The first thing to change will be the initial laser grid will change from scanning to cutting, neither Tucker or I will be going in for this reason. The next forty meters will be traps and hidden electrical floor panels galore. I hope you memorised their placement.

"Once you've gotten past that there will be another door. That should be seven minutes in and that's where you and I come in Tuck. I will be upstairs watching the phones. after the computer sees that Sam is going for Danny it will notify Maddie, through her cell phone, and ask for confirmation for the use of deadly force. Luckily it wont send video or pictures of the intruder. Mom will take a few moments to send the response and depending on where they are that will take three to four minutes. Tucker you will use your link to their system through your laptop to receive and alter the confirmation to a command to cut the power to the grid. Maddie should call about the intruder to see if I'm okay, I'll answer after the fifth ring.

"When the power goes out the other door can be forced open. Do you have your crowbar?" Sam held one up, "Good. On the other side of that door is another short hallway followed by one more door that you should be able to easily open, and behind that the room where they are keeping him. Now the cell they have him in and the initial door right here are on a seperate power grid so you will have to access the terminal directly to the left of his cell to open it. The password is 'Fudge', capital F. Now every single scrap of metal from the other side of this door to where they are keeping him is Ecto-reactive. If he touches it, it will explode. Not enough force to kill you but certainly enough to incapacitate you both. That why you need this," Jazz handed Sam a Fenton Thermos, "I know it will be hard to do to him, but it's the only way to get him out safely. After that it shouldn't take you as long to get back since you wont need to avoid the traps and you should make it through the door with thirty seconds to spare.

"Then we get the hell out of Dodge!"

Sam and Tucker moved to where they needed to be for the beginning of the process. Tucker sat at a nearby desk and established a connection with the Fenton network. Sam took the position of a track runner.

Jazz stood by the button and counted down from five with her fingers on her right hand.

Finally, after an eternity, or so it felt like to the three, Jazz pushed the button. The wall slid aside with a mechanical whirring sound and Jack's voice, from before the incident, sounded out.

"Welcom to the Fenton Ecto Containment Program. Please keep your chin elevated for an easier scan from the biometrics."

"Yeeaaagh!" Sam took off with a furious shout.

Jazz raced upstairs to watch the phone like she said and Tuck followed her movements from the video feed piped into his PDA.

When the email came back from Maddie confirming the use of lethal force Sam was only fifteen feet from the second door. Tucker intercepted the email before it could be received by the network and reworked into the command for power shut down. That took twenty seconds and by that time Sam was impatiently tapping her foot as she waited to wrench the door open with the crowbar.

By the time Jazz had answered the phone Sam had made it to the third door and had just wrenched it open.

There, in the center of the room, in a spherical prison with his arms and legs in silvery metallic locks and pipes feeding in and out of him from all over his body, was the one they had come to save.

Noticing movement the person lifted it's head, hanging down from exhaustion, to glare at who he suspected was Jack or Maddie coming to run another series of painful tests on him again. The eye that peeked through the snow white bangs of his moderately long hair, did not have an iris or pupil, the entire thing just glowed green with malice and hate.

Until it saw it's visitor.

"Sam...?" he ground out with a deep, rich voice that he had not owned years before.

Sam was almost brought to tears by the naked man before her. He had scars over his body from past battles and recent experiments. His hair, as previously mentioned, had remained uncut throughout the last three years, and he had a full beard and mustache.

Most surprising was his muscle tone. Unlike what was to be expected of a prisoner not alowed any physcal activity, his muscles had not atrophied. Quite the opposite he seemed to have bulked up. He obviously stood taller than she did and had more muscle mass than some of the wrestlers that attended the highschool she tranferred to when her parents moved.

With a crack in her voice she spoke the name of the only person she loved with all her heart," Da-...Danny."

+--- End Chapter one---+

A/N: and there you have it. I am actually quite pleased with this chapter. It came out better than I first expected. And incase your wondering the scene that inspired the rest of this chapter was when Sam first opened the third door and Danny glared at her with only one visible eye.

I hope you enjoyed this.

TOSD out.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: The Hunter

Sam quickly slammed down on all the emotions threatening to burst forth from her and whiped her eyes. She walked over to the terminal connected to his cell and typed in the password.

"I'm here to get you out, Danny. Tuck is here too," she tried to make her tone light, but noone would believe it.

"Jack... Said you... left," he seemed to be having some trouble talking.

"Never. I was abducted by my parents," with an electrical zap the sphere receded, "Danny, I have to put you in a thermos. Just until we get out of the Fenton Works, I promise, but if I don't do this the metal here will hurt you."

Danny simply nodded to her, "I... trust you... Sam."

With a hiss the pipes and tubes attached to Danny released causing him to cry out in pain and green blood to pour out of some of the bigger holes. Sam almost cried out with him. Just after the shackles, more like large metal restraint slots, clicked open Sam opened the thermos and sucked Danny in before he could touch the ecto-reactive steel his parents had invented.

Sam took only half a second to gather herself back in before rushing back the way she came. She ran as though she wore the shoes of Hermes, messenger of the gods. Sam ended up escaping the hallway with two minutes to spare instead of thirty seconds like they had previously thought.

Tuck, ready to go after shutting down the power, ran up the stairs behind her, "How was he?"

"Horrible, Tuck," Sam said back without pausing. She broke into the kitchen noisily and looked to see Jazz just hanging up the land line. She gave a shrill whistle without stopping yet and ran for the front door. There they all paused and composed themselves. It would not do for one of the neighbors to think that they were running away from a crime or some such, they were there under the appearance of visting Jazz after all.

Sam handed Jazz the thermos that had Danny which was then shoved down in her back pack. They all ambled out to Jazz's car and the two girls got in the front seats while Tucker climbed into the passanger seat behind Jazz. She calmly drove the three of them to the hotel where they were staying.

Their calm, collected, appearances lasted up until the lock was in place on Sam's door before the feelings overwhelmed them all. Sam fell to the ground leaning on the door for support. Tucker had crashed down into a very comfy looking chair. Jazz, like Sam, could no longer support her own weight with her legs and ended up on the floor though she was grinning brightly.

After a minute or two to wind down the three of them stood together and opened the thermos. A flash of blue light and there stood Danny. He did not stay standing for long, though. He fell forward with a cry of pain.

Before he could fully hit the floor Sam was there with her arms around him just under his own. His weight was too much for her to keep them both standing and so they ended up on their knees, his head on her shoulder.

This was the small crack that broke the dam containing the emotions Sam had been suppressing for the last three years. Tears began to pour out of her eyes and she held Danny tighter to herself. Two more sets of arms wrapped around Danny and Sam, Jazz and Tucker, and together the four of them let out the pain of these last three years.

Two hours later, after a shower and a much needed shave for the Ghostboy-turned-man, the four of them were active. Danny, now dressed in a familiar, if much bigger, white shirt with a red circle, blue jeans, and red converse, was talking happily with Sam. They all knew that his was his release. He was not better yet, not after two measely hours, but Sam , Tucker, and Jazz being there was the start of it.

"... and then he proceeded to shout out some kind of lame, self written poetry that was supposed to make me his woman! As if! The jerk never got the hint! Not until I kneed in the crotch... the ninth time," Sam said, describing some senior student from her highschool.

Tucker snorted, "Yeah, but only because you ruptured one of his testicles and his parents got a restraining order on you."

Danny chuckled softly, the humor reaching into his blue eyes. Jazz was glad to see that. it mean that whatever her parents had done hadn't broken him. Maybe they had used some restraint.

"I had a dream once, about a year ago I think, that you were flying, Sam. You were flipping and twirling. And wearing a leotard," he couldn't keep the grin off his face at that point, "It was beautiful. And very hot."

Sam blushed and socked the much larger nineteen year old on the arm playfully, "Well, let's call me seeing you naked even then."

Danny just grinned at her, though it slowly faded as he regarded her seriously. He been thinking of something for a while now, for eight years to be perfectly honest, and he needed to get it off his chest.

"I love you, Sam," subtlety was never his strong point.

"Wha- I-I"

"I don't know if this is just another dream or not, but I love you. I have for a long time," he gently touched the side of her face, "It's what kept me sane for as long as I've been locked away."

Sam's eyes were wide as she stared into Danny's. This was something she had been hoping for since just after she turned thirteen. It was what made the decision to be by his side no matter what such a simple one. It was something she had been denying for far too long.

And it was something she wasn't going to keep from herself, or Danny for that matter, any longer.

Danny was quite shocked when her answer was to practically tackle him in a kiss.

This author is unpracticed in the explanations of the physical transcending into the ethereal, escaping the mortal realm and ascending into planes greater than human imagination can conceive, but that kiss, shared between long time friends and now lovers, was about as close as anyone could get without crossing over and going to a place beyond even the Ghost Zone.

It was only halted by a grumbling Jazz slapping a wad of bills into Tucker's hand and his following remark of, "Told ya so!" that broke them apart.

Another hour and a half later and they were just leaving the city limits of Amity Park. Danny and Sam were in the backseat of Jazz's car, the halfa sleeping deeply as he leaned against Sam. Sam was gently stroking Danny's hair as she looked at his sleeping face.

They wouldn't be taking a plane, far too easy to track. They planned to go to a state picked out of a hat. Literally, they took the name of every state that did not border their own home state, put it into a hat, shook it up, and chose. They then picked a city that was decidedly not the capitol of that state, their choice being Lebanon of Indiana. They'd stay there a couple of days, three at the most, then move on again, this time heading for the southern border.

That would begin their first crime, illegally crossing the border. From that point forward they'd have to rely on Danny's powers.

But like all plans it was not without a few hitches.

Such as Skulker stopping them not that far out of Amity Park by blowing up the road infront of them.

Jazz swerved and the brakes shrieked and after a couple of moments they were all, except Danny who had remained deep asleep, staring out the front window to look at the mechanical hunter.

"Give me the Ghost Child!" He shouted to them, an array of missiles aimed at their current position.

Sam narrowed her eyes and exited the car. She was quickly followed by Tucker and Jazz. Sam stood fearlessly before the ghost with an armory worth of weapons. A pair of leather bands on her wrists, carved in ancient runes from the era of the Amulet of Aragon, glowed a pale blue.

"Come and take him!"

Skulker simply grinned as he pointed his left fist at her, a large laser weapon popping up out of his wrist, "Think I'm a fool, girl? I can see the runes you're wearing, and I already know their weakness. Now, I won't try to bargain with you for him. You have proven far too loyal for that so..." The weapon began to charge up. Fear flashed across the face of the three standing in the line of fire.

Before a voice they now recognized as their friend, brother, and boyfriend respectively, echoed from above and behind them.

"Hello, misplaced aggression." This was immediately followed by a blast of green light that struck Skulker in the stomach.

Skulker looked at where the blast struck and was quite surprised to find a basketball sized hole. The blast had destroyed everything in it's path from his stomach to his back in a perfect circle. He looked to the origin of the blast, but there was nothing there.

He heard a kind of metallic twang behind him, but before he could even turn his head to look it was seperated from his mechanical shoulders by a white gloved hand, ectoplasmic electricity arching over and trailing behind each individual finger.

The attack didn't stop there.

With a brutality that the humans on the ground had never before seen from the half ghost, he proceeded to rip Skulker's parts into little more than sparking, broken circuitry. Only the head, where Skulker truly resided, was left and Danny held that before him, almost a mockery of the scene from Shakespear's Hamlet, his other hand still arching with that deadly green electricity.

He ripped the front of the face off and pulled out the green blob that was the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter.

"I'm not a child anymore," using his free hand he clawed the air to the side of him ripping a hole into the Ghost Zone and proceeded to throw the blob into it.

Danny rushed down to the ground and spoke before they could mention what happened, "We have to leave now. Jack made a... not quite a barrier, it doesn't keep anything out, but any time a ghost gets anywhere near the city they know."

Sam broke away from the shock of the current situation, "Let's go." She stepped towards the car.

Danny grabbed her arm, "No, that's too slow. We'll never make it." He proceeded to do something odd yet again.

Danny tranformed back into his human form, pulled the three of them into a wide hug and transformed. The odd thing was that he took them with him. As the blue-white ring of pure energy spread out from his waist it went further and covered his companions. It split into two, one traveling up, the other down, and pulled all of them into a spectral form.

Their clothes and hair became photo opposites, their skin lightened several shades, and their eyes changed color. Danny's became that familiar apple green, Sam's turned silver, Tucker's became an impressive red color, and Jazz's teal eyes became pure white.

Danny was now breathing heavily. He was unable to hold himself up and leaned on the others for support.

"Danny," Jazz began, looking at her new self, along with Sam and Tuck, "How did you-"

"A dream," He gasped out, "I saw it in a dream. You should stay like this for a day." His eyes closed slowly, but before he could fall asleep he clawed the air to their right again. A hole opened up into the Ghost Zone yet again.

Taking the hint, Sam grabbed Danny and let the way through the portal. She didn't stop to care about how Danny seemed to weigh much less now, or that she was flying without knowing how to before hand. All she knew was that she had to get Danny out of there before his thrice damned parents showed up.

Tuck and Jazz made a quick trip back to there car to grab their supplies and then followed the other two into the ghost zone.

+---Chapter End.

A/N: One might question, where the hell am I going with this? The answer, a mystery. Well, I know, but, as a general rule of writing, you don't tell people the end before the, you guessed it, end.


End file.
